Anyway, where did I leave off? OH yes, Arirang. I hope y'all got a chance to YouTube it. It is indeed a very incredible experience. Like I said, it's 120,000 performers (like a ginormous marching band except with gymnastics and musical talent) on the field and 20,000 kids (see their little heads?) 
seated on the opposite side of the stadium to form the backdrop. At first we were all mistaken and thought that the children were holding up white posters on which images were projected, but my camera zoom quickly proved us wrong. The kids actually have a whole book of different colored pages that they are to flip on cue. It's really amazing how precise they are. But then again, we were told they practice for months and they perform daily I believe for 3 months straight. I'm hoping those are their summer break months, but I'm not actually sure. We were also told thousands more actually try out, and these were the cream of the crop. It's a pretty big deal to be an Arirang performer. Like one of those things that your parents can brag about. If you make it, you are after all THE best of the best--nationally.
I think what I'll do is just post a lot of pictures and hopefully some videos so y'all can see for yourself.
So this was one of the first acts we saw. This was an all female performance. I believe the performers were from the late teens to early 30s. After watching the first 15 minutes, I started experiencing that strong feeling of "collectivism" and "unity". But there was definitely something a little 'off' about it. It was beautiful, yet a little unnatural. Maybe that's just the individualistic American in me talking, but I think it was more than that. I mean, these performers take a 3 month hiatus from their jobs or school to perform for whom? Much of the stadium was empty. 3 months in the world's second largest stadium...in a country that seemed kind of empty to me when I was there...but then again I was coming straight from the crowded streets of China.
Here are some pictures from the children's act. I just don't know how they got thousands of children to learn a routine and perform it so precisely!
This following part totally reminded me of that scene from Disney's Mulan--you know that whole "Be a man" musical scene. (Don't deny it--you know what I'm talking about--you're totally singing the song in your head right now!) Except of course this is Tae Kwon Do. They ended up (as you can see in the middle image) catapulting people through the air. It was ccrazzzyy.
They also had a section on China-DPRK relations which we were told was new this year. I was slightly offended because the Chinese were partially represented by dancers in panda suits. But I guess with a bunch of Asian looking people, it's hard to tell the difference? The first two pictures are of the same slogan in Korean first and then Chinese. Remember--those are little kids changing the background by flipping a page in their poster book on cue.
And here of course are the pandas. They did throw in a dragon dance which I appreciated!
And a very PC finale, we've got 120,000 North Koreans dancing around the world.
And here's the backdrop falling apart as the kids are probably dying to get some dinner at 9:30 at night.
So there we have it ladies and gentleman: The Mass Games (aka Arirang) 2010. I will do my best to post some videos on YouTube and post the links next time. I think the files may be too large for a blog post. I also can't run YouTube and Blogspot at the same time on this VPN connection or one of them will timeout. Nonetheless--I am glad to have internet once again!
Until next time--and don't worry--this was just the end of my first day in the DPRK. I've got plenty more to share ;)
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